Thursday, November 15, 2012

This is the transcript of events on July 16th as written by Stephen in his own words right after the two Police officers had visited him and threatened him...

Monday July 16; approx. 8:15pm

Two officers (one man, one woman) from Waitakare knocked at my door while I was in the middle of class. They could see I was teaching when I answered the door. They identified themselves as police and asked to speak with me outside.

I stepped outside and was told by both officers that they could smell cannabis. This was impossible. I said I didn’t understand exactly what was being implied and pointed out that I was in the middle of work and that there was no illegal behavior taking place.

They checked my name and address details and that I was complying with bond conditions.

The man asked me if I had a lawyer and what his name was. He asked if I had an idea of what I was going to do on Thursday when I next make a court appearance. He said I had 1 charge currently against me but that more could follow if the arresting officer decided to ‘dig further’. He said I could make it all turn out much easier depending on what I decide to do. He made mention of how other people have made noise and turned cases like this into a campaign.

I said I understand and explained that I would be talking to my lawyer in a couple of days about Thursday‘s court appearance.

He asked if I was a cannabis campaigner. I explained I had been an activist for cannabis law reform for 13 years.

Once again, he made reference to smelling cannabis. Once again I pointed out that I was in the middle of work.

Less than a week after this intimidation, on July 22nd, Stephen was found dead.

7 Comments:

Where oh where is police apologist in chief Greg O'Connor? "The issue here is that our officers would not have had to go to the residence of the accused if we had simply been allowed to wiretap his phones, and install cameras in his house. The notion of 'having a right to privacy' is just a smoke screen put up by people with something to hide." NZers are all salivating at this statement, and beg the Government to increase police surveillance powers and create an Orwellian police state that will 'keep us safe'.

I'm extremely sorry for the loss of your friend . It should be no surprise to New Zealanders that a police state exists here . Police states exist everywhere unfortunately . Such is the nature of the beasty . The NZ Police are being used to smack down the dissenters of our bastard status quo and that comes from corporate interests here and THAT should really , really concern us all . Cannabis is political . It's use or otherwise has nothing to do with medical efficacy , moral dilemas or the harm it does to our already sick and limping communities and isn't it truly vile that a nice guy gets whacked for standing up for love , compassion and common sense . Sadly though , it's not unusual and I fear it'll get worse before it gets better . New Zealanders have been programmed to look inward and to blame the self for their grievances . Emotional self mutilation is clearly evident in our world leading self-harm statistics . When corporates look in here , as in the case of the Kim Dotcom fiasco/ Scam for example they must see us as roped down sitting ducks . Emotionally disembodied individuals easily picked off one by one . Thanks Neo Liberalism . Thanks roger douglas , thanks muldoon , thanks you guys . You should be proud of what you've achieved .

Unfairly judgedWhen police come under attack for allegedbotch ups or operational failures, the barbsare directed at the organisation as a whole,meaning we all wear the criticism. However,as we all know, it is the individuals involvedwho will feel the blowtorch on their netherregions as their actions are dissected.That is why we, as an Association, takea very proactive stance where we believethose individuals are being malignedunjustly, and this often involves attemptingto get the true facts out not only to thepublic but also to our members whogenerally have to rely on the media for theirinformation, and can be influenced by that.Because we don’t write the editorials ordecide who is interviewed, or get to selectwhich sound bite is used, it can be difficultto get the facts across.The recent High Court decision to stayproceedings against 21 gang membersbecause detectives, with the permissionof the Chief District Court Judge, put anagent through the court system, is a verygood example.The High Court judge disagreed withwhat happened, as is his prerogative.However, instead of criticising the judge,now deceased, who authorised the action,he criticised the police officers for notgiving him enough information.What the public, and many policeobservers, were not told was that thesenior officers who briefed the judge wereprepared to give him any informationhe required, in any form, but he did notrequire any more.So whether the actions were justified ornot, the point we struggled to get acrosswas that the criticism should have beendirected at the judge for not requestingmore information, not the police for notproviding it.Perhaps it was a case of it being mucheasier to criticise police than your owncolleague, especially one who had sincedied. I wonder whether untimely deathwould have spared any of the police officersfrom criticism?The outcome is another beating, largelyunjustified, of several of our colleagueswho were simply doing a difficult andchallenging jobthe best way theycould. And, as withOperation Eight,the rules have beenchanged, mid-game,by the judiciary andpolice take the flack.The commentators, mostly membersof the legal profession, climbed over eachother to get more outraged at, as JusticeFrance continually mentioned in hisjudgment, the discourteous way the courtswere treated.Sounds like they all got a little huffy tome! The real losers are the public of Nelsonwho, due to the totally disproportionateresponse in staying the charges, nowhave an even cockier group of criminalsin their town extending their sphere ofintimidation.And it has just got a whole lot harder toinfiltrate criminal groups.

When police come under attack for allegedbotch ups or operational failures, the barbsare directed at the organisation as a whole,meaning we all wear the criticism. However,as we all know, it is the individuals involvedwho will feel the blowtorch on their netherregions as their actions are dissected.That is why we, as an Association, takea very proactive stance where we believethose individuals are being malignedunjustly, and this often involves attemptingto get the true facts out not only to thepublic but also to our members whogenerally have to rely on the media for theirinformation, and can be influenced by that.Because we don’t write the editorials ordecide who is interviewed, or get to selectwhich sound bite is used, it can be difficultto get the facts across.The recent High Court decision to stayproceedings against 21 gang membersbecause detectives, with the permissionof the Chief District Court Judge, put anagent through the court system, is a verygood example.The High Court judge disagreed withwhat happened, as is his prerogative.However, instead of criticising the judge,now deceased, who authorised the action,he criticised the police officers for notgiving him enough information.What the public, and many policeobservers, were not told was that thesenior officers who briefed the judge wereprepared to give him any informationhe required, in any form, but he did notrequire any more.So whether the actions were justified ornot, the point we struggled to get acrosswas that the criticism should have beendirected at the judge for not requestingmore information, not the police for notproviding it.Perhaps it was a case of it being mucheasier to criticise police than your owncolleague, especially one who had sincedied. I wonder whether untimely deathwould have spared any of the police officersfrom criticism?The outcome is another beating, largelyunjustified, of several of our colleagueswho were simply doing a difficult andchallenging jobthe best way theycould. And, as withOperation Eight,the rules have beenchanged, mid-game,by the judiciary andpolice take the flack.The commentators, mostly membersof the legal profession, climbed over eachother to get more outraged at, as JusticeFrance continually mentioned in hisjudgment, the discourteous way the courtswere treated.Sounds like they all got a little huffy tome! The real losers are the public of Nelsonwho, due to the totally disproportionateresponse in staying the charges, nowhave an even cockier group of criminalsin their town extending their sphere ofintimidation.And it has just got a whole lot harder toinfiltrate criminal groups.

@ Tom Thumb . Personally and at a local level I try to understand how difficult it must be to be a cop in these heady times . The police , like all of us have to labour through this nightmare . The police have to try to manage criminals , protect us and enforce laws while on the other , far side there are power-money-addict politicians pimping us out to corporations at the expense of human society . There's a machine called the Moniac Machine , a bizarre thing to display how commerce functions ( ? ) . Where's the machine that displays how human-beings function ? http://nzier.org.nz/about-nzier/moniac-machine

A word of advice to the police . Keep showing your humanist instincts towards your fellow man/woman . Use discretion as often as you can , while you still can .

The Machine has no sympathy and the servants of the Machine will not tolerate dissent .

I can't believe I'm writing this . Check out that fucking machine . I've just had a huge hit of de`ja vu .

Also , check out the gallery of fancy men at the NZIER . ( http://nzier.org.nz/about-nzier/our-people ) If you want to know where the factory for Societal Dysfunction is ... Ask John Ballingall . He can tell you where tomorrows criminals will come from . Ask SERCO . They can tell you where they'll be put .

Tom Thumb...please stop refering to Nelson people as real losers. As you can see the real losers were the police in trying to jack up charges that failed to stick. We all have to learn to live with failure.

CosmicRocketCultivator . Tom Thumb didn't mean ' loser ' in the context that you suggest it might have .

We're all losers under this current regime . And we'll continue to lose so long as this regime maintains it's current momentum . And the cops and the courts , like the rest of us are powerless to do anything about it . That's what's so brilliant about neo liberalism . The Neo Liberal regime is clever and complex but it's fatal flaw is in it's lack of humanity . It's mechanical , mathematical , clinical rampage will be it's undoing .

The very scary thing is that the proponents of neo liberalism understand this and are trying their damnedest to keep heading us human-beings ( As opposed to Consumer - Beings ) off at every turn . They profit from us when we emerge sick and dangerous from draconian policies that create underclasses of innocent people . They profit from private hospitals hence health insurance and private prisons which support a global incarceration industry with it's myriad sub industries with their myriad sub contractors who borrow huge amounts of Fed Reserve money to get in on the action . When it comes to making money , the neo liberals are on to a win / win situation . When times are good they make billions from enslaving billions to bleed them out and then hope they die heavily insured . When times are grim , people become addicts , sick , and spend money on shit they don't actually need just to feel better .

There's a nasty little organism that has the characteristics of a virus , a bacterium and a yeast . It's called a Mycoplasma . It has a plasma like exterior so it's difficult to treat with antibiotics . It displays the symptoms of a yeast infection and is found in people with serious immune diseases . It lives on cholesterol , sugars and fat . It's very small and can invade cells and mimic cell behaviour , it can disrupt the endocrine system , can cause damage to the DNA and can cause extreme illness . There is no cure . Only control . To control this thing , you have to starve it . If you want to control the banking system Don't Do Debt . Every single social problem we have in NZ today is related to money and modern money is in fact debt . And I'm not bagging our merchant class system necessarily . It's worked really well and provided us with our standard of living . It's just that it's been hijacked by debt peddlers . It's actually that simple . The parasites have taken over the laboratory . As I said before . Know your enemy . Tom Thumb and CosmicRocketCultivator . You're on the same side .